Do allergies start from the womb?
The incidence of asthma and other allergic diseases is on the rise. It is thought that environmental factors, such as pollution, are contributing to this phenomenon. The LIFE QUALITY Programme funded the PLUTOCRACY project to investigate the possible influence of exposure to xenobiotics during the time in the womb. The project, headed by biophysicists with the University of Bristol, sampled pregnant women living in cities throughout Europe that suffer from varying degrees of pollution. A number of parameters were analysed in their placental tissue, cord blood and peripheral blood. For example, levels of Immunoglobulin E (IgE), a substance produced when the body has an allergic reaction, were found to be higher in Romania than in Slovakia or Belgium. Special proteins called cytokines that regulate the response of the immune system were also studied. The PLUTOCRACY consortium discovered that Slovak mothers had considerably fewer cytokines than their Belgian counterparts, often below the detection limits of the equipment. With regard to the Belgian mothers, there was no indication of a correlation between concentrations of cytokines and xenobiotics. However, statistically significant regional variation was observed in placental trophoblast cells that were cultured in the laboratory. The same held true for levels of oxidative enzymes in the placenta. Further analysis of the PLUTOCRACY results is expected to shed light on the biological mechanisms causing these effects.
